Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12; Romans 15:4-7; Malachi 3:2; Jeremiah 18:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:7 Series: Advent 2025
God’s refining fire of repentance, which strips, chisels, and remakes us into who we were created to be, is not destruction but divine mercy to be welcomed in the season of Advent.
Illustrations: michelangelo-marble-sculpture, tmnt-michelangelo, furniture-restoration-stripping, forest-fire-ecology, potter-and-clay
December 7, 2025
The Mercy of Fire
The Second Sunday of Advent
Romans 15:4-7 Matthew 3:1-12
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. - Romans 15:4-7
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:1-12
When I was an undergrad at UT, one of my favorite courses was an art history course. It was a requirement for me as a Liberal Arts major. It could be any art class in the college. I was taking music lessons, but that didn’t count. I’ve always had a fascination with history. If you’ve ever had a conversation with me or heard me preach, you’ve probably intuited that. And so I took this class on an art history and it was wonderful. I learned a lot.
It started with the early Renaissance. And so one of the figures we studied was Michelangelo. To many people my age, our first encounter with Michelangelo was as a turtle with nunchucks and an orange mask. I had heard of the Renaissance artist before taking a class in college, but I must confess that it was only during that class that my knowledge of Michelangelo the artist surpassed my knowledge of Michelangelo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
Michelangelo is famous for his paintings, for his frescoes like the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, but especially for his sculpture. He spoke about sculpture in a unique way. Michelangelo said:
The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.
If that marble were alive, it could have been painful to chip and chip and chip until you got to the sculpture. And yet, even if it were, we would find something beautiful. Another way to think about a similar idea is with regards to restoring furniture.
To really properly restore an old desk, you need to take it apart if the joints are bad and reglue it. Then you need to strip it. Stripping wood sounds like a simple process. It is not like stripping a bed before you wash the sheets. Instead, you either paint on or sponge on Sodium Hydroxide or Methylene Chloride or another compound that sounds just as bad as those two. The toxic stripping solution melts through the old paint or stain. The solutions are so toxic that they are more difficult to come by today. Then you need to put mineral spirits or soap and water on the wood to make sure any residual from the stripper is gone and sanding won’t kill you (or harm you. This is one of the reasons why ventilation is so important for woodworking).
As we come back to the Gospel text for today, I want us to think about these two concepts: Michelangelo sculpting from the block of marble, but also, the carpenter restoring, refinishing the desk by taking it apart, stripping it, and putting it back together again. I want us to think about these two concepts as we think about the mercy of fire.
The Gospel reading comes from early in the gospel of Matthew. It describes the preaching of John the Baptist before Jesus is baptized. John preaches:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ”
Repentance is a radical process. Repentance consists of chipping away the superfluous parts of our life to reveal the core of who God created us to be. Repentance also means a stripping off of the habits of self-destruction that keep us from loving God and loving our neighbor.
Malachi describes the coming of Jesus as a refiner’s fire. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
In one perspective, fire is destructive, in another it is constructive. A fear of fire can wreck ecologies. For many years, foresters prevented all fires from taking place; this led to overgrowth and unhealthy ecologies. When a big fire came, just brought loads of destruction over acres and acres and acres. But fire can also renew areas and bring about life.
We’re in the Season of Advent. This time of preparation for the coming of Jesus. What if the ways I think we should understand the Christian life and the life that God is calling us to follow is consistently clarifying and purifying. God seek to purify us. This is what the call to holiness is.
Holiness means being set apart. God consistently calls us to be purified. God is consistently purifying us with a winnowing fire, and that means there’s gonna be things in our life that need to be burned off, some things that need to be stripped. Sometimes they need to be taken apart and put back together again, and that can be uncomfortable and challenging. There are desires in our life that need to be stripped and taken apart because they’re not for our good. They are destructive.
It’s also the case that we are unfinished marble, and that our creator needs to chip a few more things off for us to be who we were created to be. There’s a powerful image in the prophet Jeremiah, of the potter’s house. Paul also uses metaphor for us as vessel’s of clay in 2 Corinthians.
When a potter is working, before they’ve blasted their creation in the kiln, sometimes they are turning the wheel and the clay is not working in the way that they expected it would. So the potter has to mash it all back down and start again. They have to redo it. It can be frustrating to do this if you are the potter. I imagine it is much more painful if you are the clay. Getting mashed back down in order to be rebuilt does not feel comfortable. It does not provide immediate gratification.
Being reformed and remade is not the same as vegging out on the couch. There are seasons of our life when we need to be reformed and remade and that is a mercy of God.
God offers us this opportunity to be reformed and remade, to be stripped and rebuilt. To be carved again and again, it is a mercy.
In this Season of Advent, let us hold onto this concept of mercy, of divine mercy for us. May you not take pride at who you used to be. May you not build up ideals and structures of who you used to be that need to be stripped or remade. May you hold close to God and let the chafe burn up. You don’t need it. There are ideas of your own identity, that you don’t need, ideas of my own identity that I don’t need and can be burned up. We can let them go, and that is a mercy.
Out of mercy, God frees us from those commitments to destruction, destruction of our world, destruction of ourselves. Instead of staying away, and letting us reap the consequences of our self-destruction, God chose to send his son, Jesus Christ. To be born of a woman married, to be raised, offered life, given life. As we prepare for the coming of our Lord, may we willingly receive the mercy of fire.
What is something in your life that can be burned off so that you can more greatly welcome God. What do you need to be stripped of?
Or we could think about it in another direction. Maybe God has already stripped you. Maybe you have already gone through the season of getting mashed up, are you ready to be built up again?
May you let God burn what needs to be burned and mashed what needs to be mashed so that can walk in more freedom as you are sent from this place.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.